NORTHWEST REFINING'S IAN MACGREGOR.
ALBERTA'S STURGEON REFINERY OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Mike Priaro, P.Eng.
First uploaded March 3, 2018
“How do you like your crow served?”
It is highly informative to watch the visionary and tenacious Ian MacGregor—give him a medal, an Order of Canada, and the recognition and gratitude he's earned!—of North West Refining explain that the differential between his new Sturgeon Refinery's ultra-low sulphur diesel product and WCS—western Canada's benchmark heavy crude, essentially dilbit—was C$118/barrel last week.
Not C$1.18/barrel, not C$11.80/barrel but C$118.00/barrel!
Now in operation as the first new refinery in North America since 1984, its expansion to an eventual 240,000 barrels/day of dilbit feedstock awaits demonstration that the refinery is working as expected—not that there is any reason to expect otherwise.
And as the first refinery ever in the world built to capture and sequester its GHG emissions underground from the start, its well-to-wheel GHG emissions are lower than the average U.S. refinery processing conventional crude.
To the many naysayers, “think” tanks, politicians, and academic ”experts”—you, and we know who you are and I could name names—who continually attacked the very idea of a new refinery in Alberta, or an expanded refinery in eastern Canada, I say “How do you like your crow served?”
Canada needs at least three more such refineries. More on that in a later post.
Note that it is possible to batch dilbit made from bitumen, extra-heavy crude, or heavy crude, and partially-upgraded bitumen, syncrude, conventional crude, condensate, intermediate refinery products like naphtha, and refined products like gasoline, jet fuel, heating and marine oils, and diesel down any existing or proposed oil pipeline with relatively minor modifications and changes to normal oil pipeline operating procedures.
CNRL is a 50% partner in the Sturgeon Refinery and the Government of Alberta has guaranteed to provide 75% of the feedstock to its 80,000 barrel/day Phase I from Albertans' royalty-volumes-in-kind.
Mike Priaro, P.Eng.
Calgary
403-281-2156
